The Love Of The Sport

September 11, 2010, I’m sitting in the locker room getting ready for the first match of four for the weekend of SHIMMER. I always look forward to the SHIMMER weekends. It’s the one time I get a chance to see all the girls I’ve become friends with, not only across the States, but across the world. I’m putting on the MsChif gear and make-up, stretching out and contemplating a new submission to put on my first opponent. The question in mind was how to smoothly get into it.

About 10 minutes before the doors opened to let the fans in, I grabbed one of my friends and asked her to come down to the ring with me to make sure my idea would work. The way I thought to get into it was nothing too fancy, a maneuver I’ve done probably 7,336 times before. However, this time I happened to put my hand down in a position that didn’t allow my arm to turn with me as my shoulder needed to. Once in motion it couldn’t be stopped. I heard a ripping sound in my shoulder, but didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t hurting. I attempted to shake it off and said, “Give me just a minute.” Then I looked down at my arm and said, “Alright, maybe not.” I had dislocated my left shoulder. Sometimes the unfortunate happens. Thankfully, we have great support at these matches. I was brought straight to the ER where they took me right in without having to wait. As my shoulder sat out of place, that’s when all the pain really started to set in. My “SHIMbulance” driver stayed with me throughout the process. He was beyond awesome as he kept me talking about the most random things just to keep my mind off the pain.

You will submit. YOU WILL SUBMIT!!

So why do wrestlers put our bodies at risk to put on a show? Simply the love of the sport, the challenge, the adrenaline high, the roar of the crowd and all the people that are brought into our lives that never would have been there without wrestling. I get the chance to work with men and women who live hundreds to thousands of miles away that I never would have met otherwise. These are people who have made my life so much richer, and I’m more than willing to endure the hours on the road for them.
But doesn’t it hurt? Of course, but I believe we wrestlers have to have a much higher pain tolerance to keep coming back for more. It just doesn’t affect us the way it would the average person. You could use the same argument for other sports, Boxing, MMA, football, they all have painful jobs as well and yet continue to do them.

I went back to the show right after being released from the ER. I knew I’d be bummed out to be there and not able to wrestle. But I was still slightly surprised at how badly it affected me. I was actually saddened watching all of these matches going on knowing I should be a part of it and wasn’t able to be. So will I be back? Without a doubt. Will I go back to that submission hold again? Absolutely, but I’ll get into it by a safer method next time.

This week, NASA announced that it will partner with the European Space Agency to send a 4,760-pound spacecraft into space to peer out over billions of galaxies in an effort to map and measure the universe. Its purpose: to investigate the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.

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